John Tax Feeding Canada Goose

John Tax (1894-1967) Osakis, MN, c. 1917 A rare, hollow, vertically laminated cedar decoy by this famous Minnesota maker. One of only six known "feeding stick-up" Canada goose decoys ever created by Tax.

Gene and Linda Kangas, noted decoy authors and historians, in their book "Decoys: A North American Survey" wrote, "Tax's full-bodied, stick-up Canada and snow geese rank as his most important works. While the massive bodies of both species are similar, each decoy was endowed with a different head position, depicting either a feeder, nestled head or sentinel attitude. The heights, angles, and curves were varied on each so that no two were exactly alike, thus contributing to a more lifelike rig. Painting was sufficient to accurately depict each species; but, it is a marvelous sense of power and dynamic form that marks his field "stick-up" as a noteworthy contribution to decoy history." This exact decoy is pictured in Alan Haid's book "Decoys of the Mississippi Flyway" and Traff and Lindgren's pamphlet "Last of the Prairie Carvers." Original paint with even craquelure.

Provenance: John Lindgren Collection Harold Sorenson Collection Andi and David Fischer Collection Private Collection, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts

Literature: Alan Haid,"Decoys of the Mississippi Flyway," Exton, PA, 198, p. 66. exact bird illustrated. John Lindgren and Cliff Traff, "Last of the Prairie Carvers: Decoys by John Tax," 1970, plate 47, exact bird illustrated.

Provenance

John Lindgren Collection Harold Sorenson Collection Andi and David Fischer Collection Private Collection, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts